Lana Torres

Name: Lana Torres

Gender: Female

Age: 18

Grade: 12

School: Aurora High School

Hobbies and Interests: Wrestling team, working out, writing, activism, furry fandom, yo-yos, volunteer work

Appearance: Lana has shoulder length dark hair, that is somewhat naturally curly. She usually ties it up in a ponytail or bun due to her active lifestyle, and rarely lets it down when she isn't sleeping or combing it out due to disliking it getting in her face. However, she admittedly is somewhat proud of it, and likes how curly and dark it is.

Her skin color is of a naturally tanned, olive shade, due to her being Hispanic, and tends to be clear of acne. Her nose is slightly wide. Lana has almond shaped dark brown eyes with thick lashes and arched eyebrows. Lana has full lips, and an oval shaped face with a narrow chin, on which she doesn't wear make-up. Hearing aids of the behind-the-ear variety can oftentimes be seen tucked inside her (unpierced) ears due to her condition. As far as facial expressions go, she can easily come off as stoic on most occasions, even though she does have her moments of being emotional.

Lana has a normal height for a teenage girl at 5'4, with a weight of 152 pounds. She tends to have somewhat of a "bulky" looking frame, and while there is an amount of fat on her, she is reasonably fit and muscular, as a result of trying to stay inside her weight class by dieting and exercising. Sometimes she does get bruised or otherwise mildly injured as a result of wrestling, which can sometimes be visible on her body. As far as dress sense goes, she usually goes plainly, with plain T-shirts or tank tops and jeans, though she does wear a few shirts with slogans and/or pictures, usually relating to her interests in some way or another. Lana tries her best to wear things that haven't been made by companies known for child labor, pollution, or similar. In cooler weather she wears a dark red jacket, which was originally her mother's and passed down to her, and a hand-knitted dark blue scarf given to her by a relative the previous Christmas. Lana wears weathered grey tennis shoes most of the time, with plain colored socks. Lana doesn't wear too many accessories, beyond a necklace with a small pendant and occasionally wristbands. This didn't change too much for the trip; she wore a dark colored tank top, with dark khaki capris and white socks. She also wore her jacket over this, though considered taking it off prior to the abduction.

Biography: Lana was born in Seattle, an only child. She is of Hispanic origin; her grandparents on her mother's side had immigrated from Mexico when they were younger, and her father was born there. Being born prematurely, Lana was a sickly child and was lucky to have survived past infancy. While she is reasonably healthy as a teenager, to this day she has suffered from partial congenital hearing loss caused by her premature birth, in that while she could hear simple noises and conversations just fine from a reasonable proximity, she has trouble hearing certain pitches and from specific distances. This, along with a mild tendency for her to get sick more easily, made her parents somewhat protective of her, and as a result they often were concerned about her and whether or not she would be safe interacting with her classmates. However, in the end they had ended up putting her in the public school system out of fear that she wouldn't be able to socialize with her peers normally in another school. While they are still protective of her even now, they have lessened their concern somewhat as she got older.

Growing up was somewhat difficult for Lana. Ever since entering school she has had to have special attention directed towards her by teachers to help her with her condition. This has included placing her near the front of the class, taking extra time to help her individually, and her taking special education classes to make sure she was able to get her assignments done. For a while, she did have a mild speech impediment that resulted in her taking speech classes, but nowadays she talks almost clearly, only slurring and mispronouncing words a bit when tired or stressed out. However, she has been taught American Sign Language, and is fairly fluent in it. Naturally, her classmates noticed the attention that she was receiving from teachers, and their reactions ranged from typical childhood curiosity (such as asking to see her hearing aids) to bullying (such as suggesting she was dumb for needing special classes, ignoring her condition). As they grew older, however, they got used to having a classmate with her condition, and soon they started treating her normally.

One thing that had always fascinated Lana was sports and athletics. She always loved watching the athletes play on television, and eventually started playing athletic games with her classmates during breaks, such as soccer. While this did make her parents wary at first, out of concern that she would be hurt as a result of her condition, they decided in the end to let her pursue her interests. When junior high school came around, Lana joined the wrestling team. Like her parents, some of her classmates were initially concerned for her health when she first joined the team, but once she proved that she could do fine they accepted her on the team. Presently, Lana happens to be a member of Aurora's wrestling team, and is notably dedicated to it to the point of being the current team captain. She has kept herself on a diet to make sure she stays in the same weight class and regularly attends practice. She also has been known to work out in her spare time, and she claims it helps her soothe her nerves when she's stressed out. After school she can usually be seen in the gymnasium exercising.

Lana has always been sensitive about how people with conditions similar to hers have been portrayed in the media and to stories about people with disabilities having trouble in their daily lives, for obvious reasons. As she got into high school, she decided to participate in activism and volunteer work. She has been known to do volunteer work involving helping others with disabilities, such as helping at deafness centers. Her fluency with ASL has helped her interact with some of the people with similar conditions that she has volunteered with. However, she has been known to get sensitive about other social justice issues as well, and also has been known to support women's rights, animal rights, and other, similar civil rights movements. As a result, from time to time she has also volunteered in other places such as animal shelters and soup kitchens. And naturally, when Occupy Seattle was established she joined in the protests and meetings. Overall, Lana tends to get sensitive about political and social justice issues easily, and often tries to keep up to date with them.

While on the Internet she has been known to talk about social justice issues, as expected, she also has been known to write short stories. While she doesn't consider herself any good, she feels somewhat happy while writing them. Many of her stories are about animals, due to Lana always having a fondness for them. Soon, Lana found the furry fandom via some online friends, and has been slowly getting into it. While the more adult artwork has caused her to raise an eyebrow, she still enjoys looking at the more clean artwork. After being asked if she had a "fursona", Lana decided to come up with one for laughs. Eventually she decided on being a flying fox (as in, the bat), after looking around her room and seeing a plush bat that she had ever since she was a kid. To this day, she has been known to write stories for the fandom, most of which are fairly clean in nature.

Lana has always had a guilty pleasure in playing with yo-yos. When she's bored, she has been known to take one out and play with it. At first it was just the simple up-and-down movement, but as she got better she has been able to do tricks easily. She has admitted to a tendency to show off new tricks she has learned, and sometimes tries to help others with learning the same tricks as well.

At school, she has been known to be somewhat quiet. This isn't in any way a result of her condition, nor is it because she is shy. Rather, she just has an introverted temperament, and doesn't really talk too much with people she doesn't know too well. This, however, does not mean that she is incapable of making friends; while she doesn't try to be friends with everyone, she has made a few friends at school and for a period of time in junior year dated Dave Russell. In regards to learning, she does fairly well, mostly getting Bs in her classes. She has a mild determined streak, in that she always feels that she has to prove herself to others. As a result, she can get frustrated if people don't take her seriously. Even though she has a disability, it somewhat annoys her when people consider her helpless. While she does understand that she needs help in specific areas and is willing to accept it when she needs it, it does get on her nerves when others believe she needs help with tasks she could easily accomplish. She doesn't want people to acknowledge her accomplishments simply because of her condition, either, and usually just wants to go about her life. However, her determination has helped her a lot of the time. As noted, she tends to get sensitive about others with disabilities, and while she doesn't try to force help on her classmates with physical disabilities just like what annoys her, she has been known to help them out and be friendly to them.

Lana hasn't officially decided where she wants to go with the rest of her life just yet. While she does currently work at The Castle and does her volunteer work, part of her wants to become a high school P.E. Teacher, or perhaps some other occupation involving physical activity. It's the one thing she knows for certain she would like as a requirement for occupation, and is still trying to figure it out. She knows she would like to still do her activism, however.

Advantages: She is physically fit, and could easily defend herself due to being on the wrestling team. Lana is fluent in sign language and is good at gesturing with her hands and body, due to her condition and working with others with similar problems. Throughout her life she has always tried to prove herself to others, which might give her more of a push.

Disadvantages: Her hearing problems could get in the way, especially if she loses her hearing aids. She also has a slight tendency to get sick more often, which can easily hinder her in the long run. Lana could easily get frustrated, especially if her abilities are doubted, and could react negatively.

Designated Number: Female student No. 039

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Designated Weapon: Remington Model 700 Hunting Rifle

Conclusion: There's something ironic about the scrappy furry girl getting a hunting rifle. For forth, little hunter, and bag some friends as trophies.- Shamino Wahren

'The above biography is as written by KamiKaze. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: KamiKaze

Kills: Venice Pennington-Johannes

Killed By:

Collected Weapons:  Remington Model 700 Hunting Rifle (Assigned Weapon; handed off to Stephanie Chan)

Allies: Stephanie Chan, Ilya Volkov

Enemies: Ruby Forrester, Brian Zhdanovich (to a lesser extent), Ami Flynn

Mid-game Evaluation:

Post-Game Evaluation:

Memorable Quotes:

Other/Trivia

 * In earlier drafts of Stephanie Chan's profile, it was revealed that the birthday party mentioned was Lana's. Presuming this is still canon, this would give Lana a March birthday.
 * According to her handler, part of Lana's characterization and to some small extent her appearance are based off of Michelle Rodriguez, an actress known for being typecast as tough, badass women who inevitably get killed off.
 * As of the start of the game her hearing aids have been confiscated by the terrorists, presumably because they use batteries.
 * Lana is participating in the non-canon V5 Survivor, starting out as a member of the Varna Tribe, where she remained until the merge. She was the sixth member of the ten-person jury, and voted for Jaquilyn Locke to win.
 * In an earlier draft of the game, Lana was third place, having received two jury votes against Cammy Davidson and Cassandra Black. However, her alliance's method of wresting control included many tiebreakers (as the alliances remained constant) as well as a move by the other alliance that was judged to be very poor. As such, the boot order from the eleventh round onwards was changed.

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Lana, in chronological order.

The Past:

Pre-Game:
 * A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks
 * Par Course
 * Stars and Bucks
 * Sonic Rainboom

V5:
 * Birds, Bats, and General Flying Things
 * The Unlucky Clover Field
 * Midnight, The Stars and You
 * Friends 'til the end
 * The Sound A Sloth Makes
 * It Looks Good on Paper

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Lana Torres. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''